Headline, August04, 2013

'''THE TOGS OF WAR'''

ATTEN-SHUN ! PRESENT ARM!  A catwalk camouflage crossover is taking the world by a storm and is leading the 2013's Military campaign over several fronts, so be prepared for shop and awe...........

Strange to think that, even in the 20th century, soldiers wore bright uniforms. ''Camouflage,'' a new exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, shoes just how much battle dress has changed, and how that cloth, DPM or Disruptive Pattern Material, has become a symbol of both protest and fashionable folly.

''Camouflage as we know it, as visual deception, has only fairly recently been systematically applied,'' said James Taylor curator of the exhibition. The introduction of camouflage was a slow reaction to the hurtling speed of change in fighting. Indeed in WW1, French troops went to the front in patriotic blue jackets and red trousers. When they realized they were easy targets in the new age of planes and sophisticated firearms.

In WW1, artists were sent to the frontline to paint Cubist abstractions on machinery, echoing the work of Picasso and Braque, to help merge the armaments into the background. Most soldiers were dressed in drab through WWII, although some covert troops such as parachute regiments were given early versions of DPM to go behind enemy lines.

The Vietnam War turned camouflage into a potent symbol of protest. In that war, the first primetime conflict with unflinching media coverage, the pattern became inextricably linked with soldiers forced into futile battle. Perhaps compounded by the fact that camouflage had not been worn so extensively in combat before, the dress became synonymous with the war. And the subsequent backlash.

'We have tried to identify when it crosses over into fashion,'' said Taylor. ''In the Sixties, Vietnam Veterans are photographed protesting against the war in DPM, and this camouflage becomes a signal for civil disobedience. It bleeds into the public.''

Fashion thrives on appearing counterculture. Camouflage was unlike previous military uniforms, which have long inspired menswear because of the correctness and definition of the garments. Regimental clothes make men look their best, but the lines of camouflage are intentionally blurred: for the first time the military uniform was created that hid rather than enhanced the body. In that, the camouflage was subversive; and then as soon as the soldiers turned themselves into protesters, the link between DPM and transgressive  thought was cemented.

In the age of thermal imaging is camouflage obsolete? It certainly has lost some power to shock in a fashion sense because of its pop-styling crossover. But it stays a very regular on the catwalks. Yet as an instrument of warfare, camouflage still has a purpose. ''There are now different ways of detecting the presence of the enemy.'' says Taylor. ''and not just heat tracking. But visual concealment is still an important part of the warfare.

In Afghanistan, for instance, the Taliban fighters don't have night vision goggles.'' So camouflage continues to play its role, hiding the soldiers till the conflict ends.

But be it Soldiers or Warfare do get to see the beauty of Spitfire Trolley or the Spitfire suitcase; Miss not the Hide'N Chick goggles, or the Battle Sounds of Woodland Bonsai Speakers just to name a few. Camouflage fabric and fashion is here to delight and stay.

With respectful dedication to all the Students, Professors and Teachers of Sweden. See ya all on the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless: So Wild At Heart.

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless